As we face the challenges of the 

21st century, the federal 

government must strive to build 

high-performing organizations. 

Nothing less than a fundamental 

transformation in the people, 

processes, technology, and 

environment used by federal 

agencies to address public goals 

will be necessary to address public 

needs. In high-performing 

organizations, management 

controls, processes, practices, and 

systems are adopted that are 

consistent with prevailing best 

practices and contribute to 

concrete organizational results. 

Ultimately, however, the federal 

government needs to change its 

culture to become more resultsoriented, client- and customerfocused, and collaborative in 

nature. 

On November 6, 2003, GAO hosted 

a forum to discuss what it means 

for a federal agency to be highperforming in an environment 

where results and outcomes are 

increasingly accomplished through 

partnerships that cut across 

different levels of government and 

different sectors of the economy. 

The forum included discussions of 

the metrics, means, and 

mechanisms that a federal agency 

should use to optimize its influence 

and contribution to nationally 

important results and outcomes. 

The forum included representatives 

of the public, not-for-profit, and 

for-profit sectors as well as 

academia who are knowledgeable 

of what it takes for organizations to 

become high-performing. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-343SP.

To view the full product click on the link 

above. For more information, contact J. 

Christopher Mihm, Managing Director, 

Strategic Issues on (202) 512-6806 or 

mihmj@gao.gov. 

Highlights of GAO-04-343SP. 

February 2004

HIGHLIGHTS OF A GAO FORUM 

High-Performing Organizations: Metrics, 

Means, and Mechanisms for Achieving 

High Performance in the 21st Century 

Public Management Environment 

There was broad agreement among participants at the forum on the key 

characteristics and capabilities of high-performing organizations, which 

comprise four themes as follows: 

• A clear, well-articulated, and compelling mission. Highperforming organizations have a clear, well-articulated, and 

compelling mission, the strategic goals to achieve it, and a 

performance management system that aligns with these goals to 

show employees how their performance can contribute to overall 

organizational results. 

• Strategic use of partnerships. Since the federal government is 

increasingly reliant on partners to achieve its outcomes, becoming a 

high-performing organization requires that federal agencies 

effectively manage relationships with other organizations outside of 

their direct control. 

• Focus on needs of clients and customers. Serving the needs of 

clients and customers involves identifying their needs, striving to 

meet them, measuring performance, and publicly reporting on 

progress to help assure appropriate transparency and accountability. 

• Strategic management of people. Most high-performing 

organizations have strong, charismatic, visionary, and sustained 

leadership, the capability to identify what skills and competencies the 

employees and the organization need, and other key characteristics 

including effective recruiting, comprehensive training and 

development, retention of high-performing employees, and a 

streamlined hiring process. 

During the forum, the Comptroller General offered several options that 

the Congress, the executive branch, and others could pursue to facilitate 

transformation and to achieve high performance in the federal 

government. Several of the participants provided their views and 

experiences with these options. These options included: 

• establishing a governmentwide transformation fund where federal 

agencies could apply for funds to make short-term targeted 

investments, based on a well-developed business case; 

• employing the Chief Operating Officer concept or establishing a 

related senior management position, such as a Principal Under 

Secretary for Management and/or Chief Administrative Officer, to 

provide long-term attention and focus on management issues and 

transformational change at selected federal agencies; and 

• examining certain federal budget reforms, such as a biennial budget 

process, which could encourage the Congress and federal agencies to 

focus on long-range issues and possibly provide more time for 

oversight of existing government programs, policies, functions, and 

activities. 
Page 1 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, D.C. 20548

A

February 13, 2004

The federal government faces a range of new challenges in the 21st century 

that it must confront to enhance performance, ensure accountability, and 

position the nation for the future. These include long-term fiscal challenges 

posed by the nation’s large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance–the 

federal government’s most pressing challenge–and several major trends 

including: evolving national and homeland security threats, increasing 

global interdependence, the global shift to market-oriented knowledgebased economies, an aging and more diverse population, rapid advances in 

science and technology, various quality of life challenges, and diverse 

governance structures and tools. Given these challenges, the federal 

government needs to engage in a comprehensive review, reassessment, 

reprioritization, and as appropriate, reengineering of what the federal 

government does, how it does business, and in some cases, who does its 

business. To enhance the nation’s capacity to both respond to the fiscal 

challenges and to make government more relevant for the 21st century, this 

process should involve examining the base of existing government 

programs, policies, functions, and activities so that emerging needs can be 

addressed while outdated and unsustainable programs can be either 

reformed or eliminated. 

As we face the mounting challenges of the 21st century, the federal 

government must strive to build high-performing organizations. Nothing 

less than a fundamental transformation in the people, processes, 

technology, and environment used by federal agencies to address public 

goals will be necessary to address the public needs facing the nation in a 

time of rapid change. In high-performing organizations, management 

controls, processes, practices, and systems are adopted in areas such as 

financial management, information technology, acquisition management, 

and human capital that are consistent with prevailing best practices and 

that contribute to concrete organizational results. Ultimately, however, to 

successfully transform, the federal government needs to change its culture 

to become more results-oriented, client- and customer-focused, and 

collaborative in nature. This will require that the federal government create 

a culture that moves from 

Subject: Highlights of a GAO Forum on High-Performing 

Organizations: Metrics, Means, and Mechanisms for 

Achieving High Performance in the 21st Century Public 

Management Environment
Page 2 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

• outputs to results,

• stovepipes to matrixes,

• hierarchical to flatter and more horizontal structures,

• an inward to an external focus on clients, customers, partners, and other 

stakeholders,

• micro-management to employee empowerment,

• reactive behavior to proactive approaches,

• avoiding new technologies to embracing and leveraging them,

• hoarding knowledge to sharing knowledge,

• avoiding risk to managing risk,

• protecting “turf” to forming partnerships, and

• adversarial to constructive labor/management relations.

Delivering high performance and achieving important national goals 

require the federal government to establish partnerships or networks with 

a broad range of federal, state, and local governmental agencies as well as 

not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, both domestically and 

internationally. Promoting effective partnerships with third parties in the 

formulation and design of complex national initiatives will prove 

increasingly vital to achieving successful policy outcomes in the years 

ahead. Protecting the nation from the threat of terrorism, for instance, has 

called for a concerted effort by all three levels of government as well as key 

private sector leaders responsible for critical infrastructure and resources. 

This growing interdependence means that the performance and fiscal 

capacity of the public sector as a whole will become more relevant in 

determining how successful the nation will be in addressing important 

national policy goals. Successful partnerships will entail refocusing current 

metrics and accountability mechanisms to capture a more integrated 

perspective on the efforts and accomplishments realized across 

conventional government or private sector boundaries. 
Page 3 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

A central question for the federal government is, if results and outcomes 

are increasingly accomplished through partnerships that cut across levels 

of government and different sectors of the economy, what does it mean for 

a federal agency to be high-performing in this environment? More directly, 

what are the metrics, means, and mechanisms that a federal agency should 

use to optimize its influence and contribution to nationally important 

results and outcomes? On November 6, 2003, GAO hosted a forum to 

discuss these questions. The forum brought together representatives from 

the public, not-for-profit, and for-profit sectors, as well as academia. These 

parties are knowledgeable about what it takes for organizations to become 

high-performing, as well as the challenges facing federal agencies in 

becoming high-performing organizations in the 21st century. 

Prior to the forum, GAO staff met with a number of these representatives 

and other experts who helped us develop the themes that we explored in 

our discussion. As agreed with the participants, the purpose of the forum 

discussion was not to reach a consensus, but rather to engage in an open 

dialogue without attribution. Appendix I of this report summarizes the 

collective discussion of the forum participants as well as subsequent 

comments we received from the participants on a draft of this report, and it 

does not necessarily represent the views of any individual participant. It 

also includes additional information based on prior GAO work that 

provides context for the discussion. In summary, there was broad 

agreement among the forum participants on the key characteristics and 

capabilities of high-performing organizations, which comprise four themes 

as follows:

• A clear, well-articulated, and compelling mission. High-performing 

organizations have a clear, well-articulated, and compelling mission, the 

strategic goals to achieve it, and a performance management system 

that aligns with these goals to show employees how their performance 

can contribute to overall organizational results. With these in place, 

regularly communicating a clear and consistent message about the 

importance of fulfilling the mission helps engage employees, clients, 

customers, partners, and other stakeholders in achieving higher 

performance. 

• Strategic use of partnerships. Since the federal government is 

increasingly reliant on partners to achieve its outcomes, becoming a 

high-performing organization requires that federal agencies effectively 

manage relationships with other organizations outside of their direct 

control. 
Page 4 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

• Focus on needs of clients and customers. Serving the needs of 

clients and customers involves identifying their needs, striving to meet 

them, measuring performance, and publicly reporting on progress to 

help assure appropriate transparency and accountability. 

• Strategic management of people. Most high-performing 

organizations have strong, charismatic, visionary, and sustained 

leadership, the capability to identify what skills and competencies 

employees and the organization need, and other key characteristics 

including effective recruiting, comprehensive training and development, 

retention of high-performing employees, and a streamlined hiring 

process.

During the forum, I also raised several options that could be adopted to 

facilitate transformation and to achieve high performance in the federal 

government that the Congress, the executive branch such as the Office of 

Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, and other 

federal agencies, as well as public, for-profit, and not-for-profit 

organizations could pursue. Several of the participants provided their 

views on these options and their experiences with them. These options 

included:

• establishing a governmentwide transformation fund where federal 

agencies could apply for funds to make short-term targeted investments, 

based on a well-developed business case;

• employing the Chief Operating Officer concept or establishing a related 

senior management position, such as a Principal Under Secretary for 

Management and/or Chief Administrative Officer, to provide long-term 

attention and focus on management issues and transformational change 

at selected federal agencies; and

• examining certain federal budget reforms, such as a biennial budget 

process, which could encourage the Congress and federal agencies to 

focus on long-range issues and possibly provide more time for oversight 

of existing government programs, policies, functions, and activities.

Moving forward, GAO will continue to play a professional, objective, factbased, non-partisan, non-ideological, and constructive role in assisting the 

Congress and the executive branch as federal agencies strive for higher 

performance. For example, federal agencies face challenges to improving 

their ability to manage partnerships, such as finding the balance between 
Page 5 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

preserving partners’ operational flexibility with the need to maintain the 

accountability of all partners. Other challenges for partnerships include 

identifying the metrics to measure the performance of a partnership and 

expanding the use of an appropriate targeting and risk management 

approach to focus limited resources to achieve desired outcomes. 

Addressing these challenges is vitally important to foster the development 

of high-performing organizations within the federal government.

Appendix I summarizes the collective discussion of the forum participants 

as well as subsequent comments we received from the participants on a 

draft of this report. It also includes additional information based on prior 

GAO work that provides context for the discussion. Appendix II provides a 

list of the participants. Appendix III lists related GAO products on 

organizational transformation and the 21st century public management 

environment. Appendix IV contains a selected bibliography on highperforming organizations and networked government or partnerships. 

Appendix V summarizes planned and past Comptroller General forums and 

roundtables. This report will be posted on our Web site at www.gao.gov. 

For additional information on our work on federal agency transformation 

efforts and strategic human capital management, please contact J. 

Christopher Mihm, Managing Director, Strategic Issues on (202) 512-6806 

or at mihmj@gao.gov. Key contributors to this report include Sarah Veale, 

Eric Mader, Ellen Grady, and Peter Del Toro.

I wish to thank all of the participants in the forum for taking the time to 

share their knowledge and to provide their insights and perspectives on the 

important matters this document discusses. I look forward to working with 

them and others on this and other important issues of mutual interest and 

concern in the future.

David M. Walker

Comptroller General

of the United States 
Page 6 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of Apendxies

Forum Discussion ApendIxi

Appendix I summarizes the collective discussion of the forum participants 

as well as subsequent comments we received from the participants on a 

draft of this report. It also includes additional information based on prior 

GAO work that provides context for the discussion. Overall, the forum 

discussion provides guidance and options for consideration in developing 

high-performing organizations in the federal government. Although federal 

agencies have the primary responsibility for moving the federal 

government towards high performance, the Congress has a key role 

through its legislative, appropriations, and oversight capacities in 

establishing, monitoring, and maintaining both governmentwide and 

agency-specific management reform initiatives. 

Key Characteristics 

and Capabilities of 

High-Performing 

Organizations

High-performing organizations have a focus on achieving results and 

outcomes and a results-oriented organizational culture is fostered to 

reinforce this focus. The forum participants identified key characteristics 

and capabilities of high-performing organizations that support this resultsoriented focus, which include having a clear, well-articulated, and 

compelling mission, strategically using partnerships, focusing on the needs 

of clients and customers, and strategically managing people. Highperforming organizations have a coherent mission, the strategic goals for 

achieving it, and a performance management system that aligns with these 

goals to show employees how their performance can contribute to overall 

organizational results. Since the federal government is increasingly reliant 

on organizations outside of its direct control to achieve outcomes, 

becoming a high-performing organization requires that federal agencies 

effectively manage these partnerships. Serving the needs of clients and 

customers involves identifying their needs, striving to meet them, 

measuring performance, and publicly reporting on progress to help assure 

appropriate transparency and accountability. To manage people 

strategically, most high-performing organizations have strong, charismatic, 

visionary, and sustained leadership, the capability to identify what skills 

and competencies employees and the organization need, and other key 

characteristics including effective recruiting, comprehensive training and 

development, retention of high-performing employees, and a streamlined 

hiring process. 
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 7 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

High-Performing 

Organizations Focus on 

Achieving Results and 

Outcomes

High-performing organizations have a focus on achieving results and 

outcomes and a results-oriented organizational culture is fostered to 

reinforce this focus. By definition outcomes are achieved outside of an 

organization. Thus, results-oriented organizations focus on the often 

complex interplay of internal and external relationships, initiatives, 

actions, and trends that contribute to achieving desired outcomes. Highperforming organizations in this context seek to develop data-driven 

understandings of how their efforts contribute to overall results.

Participants generally agreed that to sustain a focus on results, highperforming organizations continuously assess and benchmark performance 

and efforts to improve performance. For example, one participant noted 

that pilots and demonstration projects help to identify innovative ways to 

improve performance. Such pilots and demonstration projects allow for 

experiences to be rigorously evaluated, shared systematically with others, 

and new procedures adjusted as appropriate, before they receive wider 

application. One of the participants noted, however, that there is a paucity 

of comparative metrics for benchmarking whether an organization has or is 

becoming high-performing. Several participants also stated that highperforming organizations manage risks to improve performance, but 

maintain accountability by continually assessing the impact of these risks. 

As part of the discussion of what it means to be a high-performing 

organization, several participants discussed the unique aspects of pursuing 

high performance in the federal government and in the public management 

environment as compared to the private sector. Nevertheless, participants 

generally agreed that the following key characteristics and capabilities 

drive high performance across both the public and private sectors. 

A Clear, Well-Articulated, and 

Compelling Mission

There was general agreement among participants about the importance of 

strategic planning, particularly about the importance of having a mission 

that employees, clients, customers, partners, and other stakeholders 

understand and find compelling. Further, participants emphasized the 

importance of setting goals to achieve the mission, and aligning the 

organization’s activities, core processes, and resources with those goals. 

We have reported that establishing a coherent mission and integrated 

strategic goals guides organizational transformation. Together, they define 

the culture and serve as the vehicle for employees to unite and rally
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 8 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

around.1 This alignment is particularly important in the current 

environment where results are achieved by working with and through 

others and resources are severely constrained, as noted by several 

participants. Several participants also identified the importance of aligning 

an organization’s performance management system with achieving goals to 

create a “line of sight” that shows employees how their performance can 

contribute to overall organizational results. One participant explained the 

importance of using performance management systems to help strengthen 

accountability. We have found that performance management systems 

reinforce accountability for change management and other goals. In 

particular, high-performing organizations strengthen accountability for 

achieving crosscutting goals by placing greater emphasis on collaboration, 

interaction, and teamwork both within and across organizational 

boundaries to achieve results that often transcend specific organizational 

boundaries.2

To help sharpen a focus on agencies’ missions, one participant suggested 

that federal agencies ask themselves hypothetically what they would do if 

their budgets were 50 percent smaller. This exercise is intended to not only 

help federal agencies identify their core purpose or mission, but to help 

them assess which core activities are necessary to fulfill it. We have found 

that high-performing organizations develop fact-based understandings of 

how their activities contribute to accomplishing their mission and broader 

results. These organizations evaluate and adjust their efforts to optimize 

their contributions to results.3 Several participants said that policy-makers 

need to re-examine the base of federal activities, identify programs that 

have outlived their relevance, and make difficult choices about wants, 

needs, and affordability. 

Several participants stated that regularly communicating a clear and 

consistent message about the importance of fulfilling the organization’s 

mission helps engage employees, clients, customers, partners, and other 

1

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to 

Assist Mergers and Organizational Transformations, GAO-03-669 (Washington, D.C.: July 

2003).

2

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Results-Oriented Cultures: Creating a Clear Linkage 

between Individual Performance and Organizational Success, GAO-03-488 (Washington, 

D.C.: March 2003). 

3

See U.S. General Accounting Office, A Model of Strategic Human Capital Management, 

GAO-02-373SP (Washington, D.C.: March 2002).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 9 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

stakeholders in achieving higher performance. An effective, on-going 

communications strategy is essential to implementing a transformation. 

One participant noted that most federal agencies do a poor job of 

effectively communicating with employees.

Strategic Use of Partnerships To be a high-performing organization, federal agencies must effectively 

manage and influence relationships with organizations outside of their 

direct control. For many federal agencies, these partnerships can range 

from direct contractual relationships for products and services, to 

intergovernmental grants and regulatory relationships, to coordination 

across federal agencies. The challenge for federal agencies is to make 

effective use of these partnerships to optimize the federal contribution to 

achieving outcomes. For example, according to one participant, the 

Superintendent of the Golden Gate National Park has recently turned to the 

use of partnerships to provide programs and services in a tight fiscal 

environment. We have found that innovative partnerships at the National 

Park Service go well beyond basic partnerships, such as contracting for 

services, and can entail complex public/private business arrangements.4 A 

focus on the effective use of partnerships is a key to achieving results and 

has important implications across a range of management functions and 

activities. Topics for consideration to effectively use partnerships include: 

• Accountability for results becomes shared among the various federal 

and non-federal partners, rather than residing with a sole partner. One 

participant said that holding partners accountable is one of the 

challenges of managing partnerships. 

• Establishing knowledge-sharing networks. For example, one participant 

noted that federal agencies often lack sufficient collaboration to share 

their experiences and best practices. 

Focus on Needs of Clients and 

Customers

Participants generally agreed that high-performing organizations focus on 

the needs of their clients and customers. This entails at a minimum, 

undertaking concerted efforts to understand and respond to client and 

customer needs, measuring progress toward meeting these needs, and 

publicly reporting on that progress and improvement opportunities–to help 

assure appropriate accountability and transparency. One participant 

suggested that federal agencies need to engage citizens more directly and 

4

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Public-Private Partnerships: Key Elements of Federal 

Building and Facility Partnerships, GAO/GGD-99-23 (Washington, D.C.: February 1999).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 10 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

involve them in the process of agency transformation to learn how to better 

respond to public needs.

One participant emphasized that it is difficult to successfully transform into 

a high-performing organization unless both policymakers and the American 

people support the effort to make changes. In that regard, federal agencies 

need to build a business case for transformation so that needed changes 

can be made before crises develop. Prudent risk-management must be a 

key part of change management efforts.

Strategic Management of People People are the primary resource of high-performing organizations and they 

need to be engaged for the organization to achieve its mission and strategic 

goals and to successfully transform. As GAO has repeatedly noted, people 

are at the center of any serious change management or transformation 

initiative. Several participants noted that strong, charismatic, and visionary 

leaders who empower their employees to achieve results and manage risks 

for the benefit of clients and customers are important elements of highperforming organizations. Sustained leadership also drives high-performing 

organizations to achieve results. High turnover among politically appointed 

leaders can make it difficult to follow through with organizational 

transformation. Some of the participants said that because of this turnover, 

it is particularly important for appointees and senior career civil servants to 

develop good working relationships from the beginning.

Several participants also said that high-performing organizations develop 

the capability to identify what skills and competences employees and the 

organization need to be successful, both now and in the future. We have 

found that workforce planning efforts linked to strategic goals and 

objectives enable an agency to address its current and future human capital 

needs, such as determining the skills and competencies needed for an 

agency to pursue its mission.5 Further, as part of workforce planning 

efforts, we have found that leading organizations use succession planning 

to identify, develop, and select human capital to ensure that successors ar 

the right people, with the right skills, available at the right time for 

leadership and other key positions.6

5

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Key Principles for Effective 

Strategic Workforce Planning, GAO-04-39 (Washington, D.C.: December 2003).

6

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Insights for U.S. Agencies from 

Other Countries’ Succession Planning and Management Initiatives, GAO-03-914

(Washington, D.C.: September 2003).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 11 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

In that regard, there was general agreement that to achieve high 

performance, federal agencies must provide more comprehensive training 

and development opportunities to foster the development of top leaders 

and employees in general. Several participants stated that federal agencies 

should invest more in leadership training and development. For example, 

lessons could be learned from the leadership training programs in the 

Department of Defense and the U.S. military, according to some of the 

participants. Several participants also identified the need for training in 

strategic planning and performance evaluation. We recently reported that 

effective training and development programs are an integral part of 

enhancing the federal government’s ability to attract and retain employees 

with the skills and competencies needed to achieve results and meet 

transformation challenges.7 A few participants expressed support for 

initiatives to strengthen recruiting of university students and partnering 

with the academic community to influence curriculum to better prepare 

students for working in the federal government. 

Several participants also discussed the importance of retaining highperforming employees, a practice of high-performing organizations. One 

invitee, who submitted comments prior to the forum because he could not 

attend, noted that high turnover in top managerial posts in general means 

newer supervisors and managers are spending less time in positions before 

moving up the chain of command. This individual stated that retaining top 

managers beyond retirement would alleviate such situations.

Finally, some of the participants stated that the federal government’s hiring 

process poses an impediment to achieving higher performance because it is 

too slow and too complex, which undermines the federal government’s 

ability to hire individuals with the right skills and experience. Specifically, 

participants discussed the difficulty of identifying job applicants that are 

starting their professional federal careers. One participant noted that more 

aggressive internship programs might help because it would enable federal 

agencies to offer permanent jobs to interns who perform well. The invitee, 

who submitted comments prior to the forum, proposed that agencies 

looking to fill critical jobs might be more successful if the federal 

government maintained a database of qualified individuals. This database 

could be used to send notifications of vacancies or be accessed by agencies 

7

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic 

Training and Development Efforts in the Federal Government, GAO-03-893G (Washington, 

D.C.: July 2003).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 12 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

searching for qualified candidates. We have reported that high-performing 

organizations need a results-oriented workforce to accomplish their 

missions, but that the current federal hiring process often falls short of 

meeting the needs of agencies, managers, and applicants.8

Next Steps to Foster 

Development of HighPerforming 

Organizations

The Comptroller General also offered several options that could be 

adopted to facilitate transformation and to achieve high performance in the 

federal government that the Congress, the executive branch such as the 

Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Personnel Management, 

and other federal agencies, as well as public, for-profit, and not-for-profit 

organizations could pursue. Several of the participants provided their 

views on these options and their experiences with them. These options 

included (1) establishing a governmentwide transformation fund where 

federal agencies could apply for funds to make short-term targeted 

investments, based on a well-developed business case, (2) employing the 

Chief Operating Officer concept or establishing a related senior 

management position, such as a Principal Under Secretary for Management 

and/or Chief Administrative Officer, to provide long-term attention and 

focus on management issues and transformational change at selected 

federal agencies, and (3) examining certain federal budget reforms, such as 

a biennial budget process, which could encourage the Congress and federal 

agencies to focus on long-range issues and possibly provide more time for 

oversight of existing government programs, policies, functions, and 

activities.

Governmentwide 

Transformation Fund

Several participants discussed the idea of a governmentwide 

transformation fund as one proposal for helping federal agencies transition 

into higher performance. In prior testimony, we have proposed establishing 

a governmentwide fund where agencies, based on a well-developed 

business case, could apply for funds to modernize their performance 

management systems and ensure that those systems have adequate 

safeguards to prevent abuse.9 The basic idea of the fund would be to 

provide short-term targeted investments needed to prepare agencies to use 

8

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Opportunities to Improve Executive 

Agencies’ Hiring Processes, GAO-03-450 (Washington, D.C.: May 2003).

9

U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Building on DOD’s Reform Effort to 

Foster Governmentwide Improvements, GAO-03-851T (Washington, D.C.: June 4, 2003).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 13 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

their performance management systems as strategic tools to achieve 

organizational results and drive cultural change. If successful, this 

approach to targeted investments could be expanded to foster and support 

agencies’ related transformation efforts, including other aspects of the 

high-performing organization concept recommended by the Commercial 

Activities Panel.10 To illustrate how such a funding approach could work, 

the Congress recently authorized the Secretary of Defense to implement a 

pilot program whereby selected Department of Defense organizations are 

provided incentives to re-engineer their operations in order to become 

high-performing organizations.11

Some of the participants offered possible approaches for a 

governmentwide transformation fund. For example, one participant 

described a special funding program in the United Kingdom intended to 

assist government agencies in implementing reforms, but the agencies had 

to reimburse the government. Another participant explained how 

“performance partnerships” work for agencies in one state government. 

Agencies received funding to implement a new information technology 

system only after they had collaborated with other members of the 

partnership and met other requirements of the performance partnership. 

One participant proposed that the federal government have 

governmentwide standards to guide these transformation initiatives. 

Another participant said the Congress should take part in creating these 

standards and they should resemble the kinds of performance standards 

described in the President’s Management Agenda.

12

On the other hand, some participants expressed concern that federal 

agencies would only implement transformation initiatives if they received 

funding through a governmentwide transformation fund. Further, some of 

the participants stated that federal agencies would have less commitment 

10The Commercial Activities Panel was mandated by section 832 of the National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, which required the Comptroller General to convene a 

panel of experts to study the process used by the federal government to make sourcing 

decisions. After a yearlong study, the panel published its report on April 30, 2002. See 

Commercial Activities Panel, Improving the Sourcing Decisions of the Government: Final 

Report (Washington, D.C.: April 30, 2002). The report can be found on GAO’s Web site at

www.gao.gov under the Commercial Activities Panel heading.

11National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, Section 337, Public Law 108-136, 

Nov. 24, 2003. 

12Office of Management and Budget, The President’s Management Agenda, Fiscal Year 

2002 (Washington, D.C.: August 2001).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 14 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

to the success of transformation initiatives if the agencies did not fund the 

initiatives themselves. One participant proposed setting aside a portion of 

the specific agency’s budget as an incentive to fund and implement 

transformation initiatives.

Chief Operating Officer The possibility of employing the Chief Operating Officer concept or 

establishing a related senior management position, such as a Principal 

Under Secretary for Management and/or Chief Administrative Officer, to 

provide long-term attention and focus on management issues and 

transformational change at selected federal agencies was raised during 

discussions about the importance of continuity of leadership for federal 

agencies. On September 9, 2002, the Comptroller General convened a 

roundtable of executive branch leaders and management experts to discuss 

the Chief Operating Officer concept and how it might apply within selected 

federal departments and agencies as one leadership strategy to address 

certain systemic federal governance challenges.13 There was general 

agreement at the 2002 roundtable on a number of overall themes 

concerning the need for agencies to do the following: 

• Elevate attention on management issues and transformational change at 

selected federal agencies. The nature and scope of the changes needed 

in many agencies require the sustained and inspired commitment of the 

top political and career leadership.

• Integrate various key management and transformation efforts. While 

officials with management responsibilities often have successfully 

worked together, there needs to be a single point within agencies with 

the perspective and responsibility—as well as authority—to ensure the 

successful implementation of functional management and, if 

appropriate, transformational change efforts.

• Institutionalize accountability for addressing management issues and 

leading transformational change. The management weaknesses in some 

agencies are deeply entrenched and long standing and will take years of 

sustained attention and continuity to resolve. In addition, making 

fundamental changes in agencies’ cultures will require a long-term 

13U.S. General Accounting Office, Highlights of a GAO Roundtable: The Chief Operating 

Officer Concept: A Potential Strategy to Address Federal Governance Challenges, GAO-03-

192SP (Washington, D.C.: October 2002).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 15 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

effort. In the federal government, the frequent turnover of the political 

leadership has often made it difficult to obtain the sustained and 

inspired attention required to make needed changes.

As discussed earlier, participants generally agreed that high-performing 

organizations have strong and sustained leadership. On the Chief Operating 

Officer concept, some of the participants discussed ways to ensure longterm attention and focus on management issues at federal agencies. The 

Comptroller General noted that in Canada, the United Kingdom, and 

Australia, government agencies are managed by a minister who is a 

political official and a deputy minister who is a career civil servant. 

Another participant stated that federal agencies need two types of top 

leaders–one dedicated to internal operations and one who is more 

externally focused. 

Federal Budget Reforms The Comptroller General asked participants to consider whether certain 

federal budget reforms, such as a biennial budget, would encourage the 

Congress and federal agencies to focus on long-range issues and possibly 

provide more time for oversight of existing government programs, policies, 

functions, and activities. In July 2001, we testified on considerations for 

updating the Budget Enforcement Act.14 We stated that those who have 

suggested that changing the appropriations cycle from annual to biennial 

believe it could (1) provide more focused time for congressional oversight 

of programs, (2) shift the allocation of agency officials’ time from the 

preparation of budgets to improved financial management and analysis of 

program effectiveness, and (3) enhance agencies’ abilities to manage their 

operations by providing more certainty in funding over two years. 

However, while we have said biennial budgeting would change the nature 

of congressional oversight, we have also said it would bring neither the end 

of congressional control nor the guarantee of improved oversight. It would 

require a change in the nature of that control. If the Congress decides to 

proceed with a change to a biennial budget cycle—including a biennial 

appropriations cycle—careful thought is necessary on implementation 

issues. 

14See U.S. General Accounting Office, Budget Process: Considerations for Updating the 

Budget Enforcement Act, GAO-01-991T (Washington, D.C.: July 19, 2001).
Appendix I

High-Performing Organizations: Highlights of 

Forum Discussion

Page 16 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

One participant stated that it would be useful to learn more from those 

states or countries that have biennial budgets to determine best practices.15

Another participant stated that the biennial budget was attractive 

theoretically, but that it would be difficult to convince the Congress of the 

benefits of a biennial budget and difficult to implement. One participant 

noted that the Department of Defense develops a biennial budget, but that 

it still must proceed through the annual appropriations process along with 

other federal agencies.

15See U.S. General Accounting Office, Biennial Budgeting: Three States’ Experiences, GAO01-132 (Washington, D.C.: October, 2000).
Page 17 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Appendix II

Forum Participants ApendIxi

Facilitator

Participants

David M. Walker Comptroller General of the United States 

U.S. General Accounting Office

Lawrence F. Alwin, CPA State Auditor, Texas State Auditor’s 

Office

Jonathan Breul Associate Partner of IBM Business 

Consulting Services and Senior Fellow at 

the IBM Center for The Business of 

Government

Colin Campbell Canada Research Chair in U.S. 

Government and Politics, University of 

British Columbia

Jeff Chambers Vice President of Human Resources, SAS

Gene L. Dodaro Chief Operating Officer, U.S. General 

Accounting Office

William Eggers Global Director, Public Sector, Deloitte 

Research

Janet Hale Under Secretary for Management, 

Department of Homeland Security

Mary Hamilton Executive Director, American Society for 

Public Administration

Sallyanne Harper Chief Mission Support Officer and Chief 

Financial Officer, U.S. General 

Accounting Office

Ted Hoff Vice President Learning, IBM 

Corporation
Appendix II

Forum Participants

Page 18 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson President, Rensselaer Polytechnic 

Institute

John Kamensky Associate Partner of IBM Business 

Consulting Services and Senior Fellow at 

the IBM Center for The Business of 

Government

Colleen Kelley National President, National Treasury 

Employees Union

Gail McGinn Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for 

Plans, Department of Defense

Patricia McGinnis President and Chief Executive Officer, 

Council for Excellence in Government

Frank A. Partlow, Jr. Chief of Staff, Government Printing 

Office

Marta Brito Perez Associate Director, Human Capital 

Leadership and Merit System 

Accountability, Office of Personnel 

Management

John Potter Postmaster General and Chief Executive 

Officer, U.S. Postal Service

Jacqueline Simon Public Policy Director, American 

Federation of Government Employees

A.W. Pete Smith, Jr. President and Chief Executive Officer, 

Private Sector Council

Max Stier President and Chief Executive Officer, 

Partnership for Public Service

Robert Tobias Director, Institute for the Study of Public 

Policy Implementation, American 

University
Page 19 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Appendix III

Related GAO Products ApendIxi

U.S. Postal Service: Bold Action Needed to Continue Progress on Postal 

Transformation. GAO-04-108T. Washington, D.C.: November 5, 2003.

Discusses the need for fundamental reform at the U.S. Postal Service and 

identifies various steps that the Service can take to modernize and improve 

its effectiveness and efficiency. While the Service has begun to implement a 

transformation plan, cut costs, and become more efficient, it continues to 

face a number of challenges. 

Results-Oriented Government: Shaping the Government to Meet 21st 

Century Challenges. GAO-03-1168T. Washington, D.C.: September 17, 2003.

Describes significant performance and management problems facing the 

federal government and the importance of periodic reexamination and 

reevaluation of agencies’ activities. Suggests a range of options that the 

Congress could use to eliminate redundancy and improve federal 

operations. 

Truth And Transparency: The Federal Government’s Financial Condition 

And Fiscal Outlook, delivered by The Honorable David M. Walker, 

Comptroller General of the United States, at the National Press Club, 

Washington, D.C.: September 17, 2003.

Provides a candid description of the federal government’s current financial 

condition and fiscal outlook for the coming years, and presents several 

suggestions for the consideration of the Congress, the Administration, and 

others on how to address current and future financial challenges. 

GAO: Transformation, Challenges, and Opportunities. GAO-03-1167T. 

Washington, D.C.: September 16, 2003.

Discusses GAO’s major transformation effort over the past four years to 

effectively position the agency for the future including various initiatives 

that have helped GAO become more strategic, results-oriented, partnerial, 

and responsive. Identifies challenges and opportunities that still remain. 
Appendix III

Related GAO Products

Page 20 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Results-Oriented Cultures: Implementation Steps to Assist Mergers and 

Organizational Transformations. GAO-03-669. Washington, D.C.: July 2, 

2003.

Building on the nine key practices for successful mergers and 

transformations identified at GAO’s September 2002 forum on the issue, 

this report identifies specific implementation steps for each practice 

illustrated by private and public sector examples.

FBI Reorganization: Progress Made in Efforts to Transform, but Major 

Challenges Continue. GAO-03-759T. Washington, D.C.: June 18, 2003.

Reviews the FBI’s efforts to reorganize and transform and finds that the 

agency has made progress in some areas over the past year, but a number 

of major challenges remain. 

Human Capital: Building on DOD's Reform Effort to Foster 

Governmentwide Improvements. GAO-03-851T. Washington, D.C.: June 4, 

2003.

Provides GAO's observations on recent DOD human capital reform 

proposals accompanying that agency’s broader transformation effort. 

Identifies the need for governmentwide reform so that federal agencies can 

strategically manage their human capital. 

Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: A Governmentwide 

Perspective. GAO-03-95. Washington, D.C.: January 2003.

Outlines an array of challenges and opportunities for federal agencies to 

enhance performance, ensure accountability, and position the nation for 

the future. Describes transformation efforts underway at several agencies 

to make their cultures more results-oriented, customer-focused, and 

collaborative in nature. 

Highlights of a GAO Forum: Mergers and Transformation: Lessons 

Learned for a Department of Homeland Security and Other Federal 

Agencies. GAO-03-293SP. Washington, D.C.: November 14, 2002.

Summarizes the findings of a GAO forum held in September 2002 to identify 

useful practices learned from major private and public sector 

organizational mergers and transformations that federal agencies, 
Appendix III

Related GAO Products

Page 21 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

including the new Department of Homeland Security, could implement to 

successfully transform their cultures. 

Highlights of a GAO Roundtable: The Chief Operating Officer Concept: A 

Potential Strategy to Address Federal Governance Challenges. GAO-03-

192SP. Washington, D.C.: October 4, 2002.

Summarizes the findings of a GAO roundtable held in September 2002 on 

the Chief Operating Officer concept and how it might be used in selected 

federal agencies as one strategy to address certain systemic governance 

and management challenges. 
Page 22 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Appendix IV

Selected Bibliography on High-Performing 

Organizations and Networked Government ApendVIxi

This selected bibliography provides additional resources and information 

on how federal agencies work within networks and partnerships to achieve 

results and outcomes. Prior to our forum on high-performing organizations, 

we met with a number of representatives from the public, not-for-profit, 

and for-profit sectors, as well as academia, who helped us develop the 

themes that we explored during the forum. This selected bibliography was 

culled from materials cited by these representatives in our discussions with 

them as well as from our own review and knowledge of the literature on 

this topic.

Eggers, William D. and Stephen Goldsmith. Government by Network: The 

New Public Management Imperative. Deloitte Research and The 

Innovations Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at 

Harvard University, February 2004 (forthcoming). 

Describes the emergence of networked government as a fundamentally 

different organizational model for the formulation and delivery of public 

services. Identifies different types of networks and provides illustrative 

case studies. 

Atkinson, Robert D. Network Government for the Digital Age. Washington, 

D.C.: Progressive Policy Institute, May 2003.

Outlines a framework for thinking about government in the Information 

Age that emphasizes “network government” and promotes collective action 

to advance the public good. Provides steps for creating network 

government.

National Academy of Public Administration. Powering the Future: High 

Performance Partnerships. Washington, D.C.: April 2003.

Identifies the characteristics of a high-performing partnership based on the 

experiences of 10 cross-sector partnerships. Describes how the 

partnerships work and how they provide better outcomes.

Agranoff, Robert. Leveraging Networks: A Guide for Public Managers 

Working Across Organizations. Arlington, VA.: IBM Endowment for The 

Business of Government, March 2003.

Describes 12 networks of government organizations, intergovernmental 

entities, and nonprofits and outlines from managers’ perspectives the 

critical elements for successful collaboration.
Appendix IV

Selected Bibliography on High-Performing 

Organizations and Networked Government

Page 23 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Kamarck, Elaine C. Applying 21st-Century Government to the Challenge 

of Homeland Security. Arlington, VA.: The PricewaterhouseCoopers 

Endowment for The Business of Government, June 2002.

Describes reinvented government, government by network, and 

government by market as alternatives to the bureaucratic model. Applies 

these models to the problem of homeland security.

Commercial Activities Panel. Commercial Activities Panel Final Report: 

Improving the Sourcing Decisions of the Government. Washington, D.C.: 

April 2002.

Presents 10 principles for a strategic approach to sourcing in the federal 

government and then uses these principles to assess the federal 

government’s current approach and develop recommendations for 

improvement. 

Fosler, R. Scott. Working Better Together: How Government, Business, 

and Nonprofit Organizations Can Achieve Public Purposes Through 

Cross-Sector Collaboration, Alliances, and Partnerships. Washington, 

D.C.: Three Sector Initiative, 2002.

Identifies forces that that have blurred the conventional lines between 

government, business, and nonprofit organizations and offers lessons 

learned for making cross-collaboration efforts more effective.

Kettl, Donald F. The Transformation of Governance: Public 

Administration for Twenty-First Century America. Baltimore: Johns 

Hopkins University Press, 2002.

Discusses government’s increasing reliance on tools such as grants, 

contracts, and loans that operate mainly through partnerships with 

nongovernmental players. Analyzes this transformation of governance and 

highlights the need for greater capacity to work with nongovernmental 

partners.
Appendix IV

Selected Bibliography on High-Performing 

Organizations and Networked Government

Page 24 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Linden, Russell M. Working Across Boundaries: Making Collaboration 

Work in Government and Nonprofit Organizations. San Francisco: 

Jossey-Bass, 2002.

Provides a framework describing key elements of successful collaboration. 

Case studies demonstrate how organizations overcome obstacles to 

generate greater value by working together.

Salamon, Lester M. (ed.) The Tools of Government: A Guide to the New 

Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Contains 22 essays covering a wide range of topics concerning the different 

tools of public action and the role of third-party actors in delivering 

government services. Provides a systematic discussion of how these tools 

are being used to address public problems both in the United States and 

abroad. 

Popovich, Mark G. (ed.) Creating High-Performance Government 

Organizations. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Public 

Administration, 1998.

Provides guidance and tools intended to help managers and innovators at 

every level of government mold their organizations into results-oriented, 

mission-driven operations.
Page 25 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

Appendix V

GAO Forums and Roundtables 

(Planned and Past) ApendVxi

GAO conducts periodic leadership forums and roundtables on topics 

affecting the federal government’s role in meeting selected 21st century 

national challenges. Selected leaders and experts in various fields from the 

public, private and not-for-profit sectors are convened at these meetings to 

discuss certain key issues. The goal of each event is to produce dialogue 

that stimulates new partnerships and identifies actions designed to address 

the respective issues. A report summarizing the discussions without 

attribution and noting the participants who attended is published after each 

forum and roundtable.

Sessions that are planned and have been held are listed below, as well as 

detailed descriptions of each event.

One of our most difficult and contentious national issues involves 

allocation of limited resources to meet different needs over different 

generations. This forum will be designed to discuss current and projected 

budget challenges at different levels of government caused by changing 

national priorities, known demographic trends, rising health care costs and 

other factors. This forum will explore possible metrics and methods that 

could be used to place greater attention on budgetary choices and tradeoffs 

in the connection of stewardship issues and inter-generational challenges.

Effective human capital strategies are key to maximizing the government's 

performance, assuring its accountability and facilitating successful 

government transformations. This forum will discuss pending human 

capital reform efforts, recent legislation, and possible future legislative and 

administrative reform efforts. Special attention will be provided to 

developing an initial set of operating principles for determining agencyspecific vs. governmentwide human capital reforms and seeking agreement 

on a legislative and regulatory template for providing agencies with greater 

human capital authorities. 

The U.S. may face significant worker and skills shortages in the 21st 

century as a result of long-term demographic and employment trends such 

Long-range Budget Challenges Forum Fall 2004

Human Capital and Civil Service Reform Forum Spring 2004

Workforce Challenges and Opportunities 

in the 21st Century Forum

April 22, 2004
Appendix V

GAO Forums and Roundtables (Planned and 

Past)

Page 26 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

as the aging of the large baby boom population together with slower labor 

force growth. In addition, the share of the workforce holding college 

degrees is projected to grow significantly slower than in the past. However, 

opportunities may exist for addressing the potential shortages such as 

increasing the workforce participation of seasoned workers, low-income 

individuals, those with disabilities, and foreign labor. This forum will 

discuss the future demands on the workforce, options for meeting these 

demands and their trade-offs, and the role government might play in 

helping to address these issues.

The U.S. faces a huge and growing long-range fiscal imbalance due 

primarily to known demographic trends and rising health care costs. 

Concerned about these trends, the Comptroller General sponsored a forum 

to discuss with business leaders and health policy experts the current state 

of and the long-term challenges posed by the nation's health care system. In 

addition, the discussion focused on strategies for achieving an efficient, 

effective, reasonable, and sustainable health care financing and delivery 

system over the long term.

To respond to the governance challenges of the 21st century, government 

agencies must transform what they do, the way they do business, and in 

some cases, who does the government's business. This transformation 

must create a government that is less hierarchical, process-oriented, 

stovepiped, and inwardly focused and make government more partnershipbased, results-oriented, integrated, and externally focused. A goal of this 

transformation is to create high-performing organizations across the 

federal government. Government agencies will need to work better within 

networks—governmental and non-governmental organizations, and the 

private sector, both domestically and internationally—to achieve results. 

This forum identified the essential attributes of high-performing 

organizations within a networked public management environment and

Health Care Forum January 13, 2004

High-Performing Organizations Forum November 6, 2003
Appendix V

GAO Forums and Roundtables (Planned and 

Past)

Page 27 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

possible next steps for creating high-performing organizations across the 

government.1

The U.S. faces profound challenges today and in the future such as the 

aging of the baby boomers, rising health care costs, and threats to our 

national security. The information needed to help the nation's leaders and 

concerned citizens address these challenges is not as available, 

comparable, or reliable as it could be for making public policy choices. The 

purpose of the forum was to discuss whether and how to develop a set of 

key national indicators that will provide better information to national 

decision makers for making public policy choices as well as to the public as 

a whole. 2 After the forum, several public and private sector institutions 

formed an informal national coordinating committee to begin organizing a 

national initiative as a temporary means of facilitating dialogue, work and 

funding to develop a more comprehensive national indicator system. 

Recent events have highlighted just how critical our corporate governance 

system and the accountability profession are to our market economy and 

civil society. This forum was designed to discuss implementation of the 

Sarbanes/Oxley Act of 2002, as well as other steps that have been taken, 

and additional steps that could be taken, to help improve the public 

confidence in these two critical foundations. Special emphasis was placed 

on steps designed to enhance independence of the corporate governance

Key National Indicators Forum February 27, 2003

1

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Highlights of a GAO Forum on High-Performing 

Organizations: Metrics, Means, and Mechanisms for Achieving High Performance in the 

21st Century Public Management Environment, GAO-04-343SP (Washington, D.C.: Feb. 13, 

2004).

2

See U.S. General Accounting Office in Cooperation With The National Academies, Forum 

on Key National Indicators: Assessing the Nation’s Position and Progress, GAO-03-672SP

(Washington, D.C.: May 2003).

Governance and Accountability Forum December 9, 2002
Appendix V

GAO Forums and Roundtables (Planned and 

Past)

Page 28 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

system, and the accounting/auditing and attest/assurance models for the 

21st century.3

The creation of the new Department of Homeland Security represents a 

major transformation challenge for the U.S. government. The Comptroller 

General facilitated a forum to identify and discuss useful practices learned 

from major private and public sector organizational mergers and 

transformations that federal agencies could implement to successfully 

transform their cultures. While there is no one right way to manage a 

successful merger or transformation, the participants’ discussion identified 

key practices to ultimately create a new organization that is more than the 

“sum of its parts.” GAO subsequently identified implementation steps for 

these practices to assist organizational mergers and transformations. 4

GAO has amply documented that agencies are suffering from a range of 

long-standing management problems that are undermining their abilities to 

accomplish their missions and achieve results. The Comptroller General 

facilitated this roundtable to discuss the Chief Operating Officer concept 

and how it might apply within selected federal departments and agencies as 

one strategy to address certain systemic federal governance and 

management challenges. There was general agreement that the following 

three themes provided a course of action for the Chief Operating Officer 

concept (1) elevate attention on management issues and transformational 

change, (2) integrate various key management and transformation efforts, 

Mergers/Transformation Forum September 24, 2002

3

See U.S. General Accounting Office, GAO Forum on Governance and Accountability: 

Challenges to Restore Public Confidence in U.S. Corporate Governance and 

Accountability Systems, GAO-03-419SP (Washington, D.C.: Jan. 24, 2003).

Chief Operating Officer Roundtable September 9, 2002

4

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Highlights of a GAO Forum: Mergers and 

Transformation: Lessons Learned for a Department of Homeland Security and Other 

Federal Agencies, GAO-03-293SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 14, 2002) and Results-Oriented 

Cultures: Implementation Steps to Assist Mergers and Organizational Transformations, 

GAO-03-669 (Washington, D.C.: July 2, 2003).
Appendix V

GAO Forums and Roundtables (Planned and 

Past)

Page 29 GAO-04-343SP High-Performing Organizations Forum

and (3) institutionalize accountability for addressing management issues 

and leading transformational change.5

The unexpected bankruptcy of Enron and the financial difficulties 

experienced by several other large corporations resulted in substantial 

losses to employees and shareholders. The Comptroller General convened 

a forum that focused on corporate governance, transparency, and 

accountability issues to assist the Congress in identifying systemic issues 

and changes that could serve to reduce the possibility of other Enron-like 

situations in the future. Forum participants included individuals from 

federal and state government, the private sector, standards-setting and 

oversight bodies, and a variety of other interested parties. The results of 

this forum, along with other GAO analysis, testimony, and reports, helped 

inform the Congress as it drafted legislation to strengthen government 

oversight of and protect the public's interest in the nation's financial 

markets.6

Governance, Transparency, and 

Accountability Forum

February 25, 2002

5

See U.S. General Accounting Office, Highlights of a GAO Roundtable: The Chief Operating 

Officer Concept: A Potential Strategy to Address Federal Governance Challenges, GAO-03-

192SP (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 4, 2002).

6

 See U.S. General Accounting Office, Highlights of GAO’s Corporate, Governance, 

Transparency and Accountability Forum, GAO-02-494SP (Washington, D.C.: March 5, 

2002).

(450285)
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